All Classical Adversary Methods are Equivalent for Total Functions

09/26/2017

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by   Andris Ambainis, et al.

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We show that all known classical adversary lower bounds on randomized query complexity are equivalent for total functions, and are equal to the fractional block sensitivity fbs(f). That includes the Kolmogorov complexity bound of Laplante and Magniez and the earlier relational adversary bound of Aaronson. For partial functions, we show unbounded separations between fbs(f) and other adversary bounds, as well as between the relational and Kolmogorov complexity bounds. We also show that, for partial functions, fractional block sensitivity cannot give lower bounds larger than √(n ·bs(f)), where n is the number of variables and bs(f) is the block sensitivity. Then we exhibit a partial function f that matches this upper bound, fbs(f) = Ω(√(n ·bs(f))).